Stocking



W. J. LONGTIN.

STOCKING.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 10, 1919.

1 ,35 3,590 Patented Sept. 2L 1920a w/r/vsss- I65 3 H Vl E/V70/? MbQZ/ Mmzm erzm zeh a I rra/MEK invention.

WILLIAM J. LONGTIN, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO ALLEN HOSIERY COMPANY, OF WAYNE JUNCTION, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

STOCKING.

Specification of Letters Patent. Pal-e ted Se t 21 1920 Application fil ed December 10, 1919. Serial No. 343,857.

respects. Foreign hosiery, being producedon flat machines, necessarily has a seam on the back of the leg, and the public has become so accustomed to this seam that the trade demands its presence on the American circular knitting machine product. This demand has been partlymet by the'provision of an imitation of a seam or by a line of sewing machine stitches up the back of the tubular continuous web which constitutes the leg of the stockings but this is not entirely satisfactory by any means. However, such eXpedients although intended to make the stockings attractive to the eye and fancy of the trade, weaken or otherwise detract from the structure of the fabric and are therefore objectionable, especially in the case of stockings of fine gage and yarn.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide stockings consisting of a tubular continuous web, the product'of circular knitting machines, with seams at the back of the legs insuch a way that the-seam is emphasized and made more attractive to the eye and .in such a way that the fabric is strengthened and the stocking improved, especially in the case of stockings of fine gage and yarn.

The invention will be claimed at the end hereof, but will be first described in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part hereof and in which- Figure 1, is a View of the back of a stocking showing conventionally features of the Fig. 2, is a diagrammatic view of parts of a circular knitting machine referred to in the following description.

Fig. 3, is an enlarged view of a stripe, the product of splicing, at the back of the stocking with the seam omitted.

Fig. 4, is a schematic view hereinafter referred to, and

Fig.5, is a diagrammatic View intended to show the emphasizing effect of the spliced stripe upon the seam.

In'the drawings 1, is the leg portion of a stocking and it consists of a tubular conti'nuous knitted web, the product of a circular knitting machine. ,2, is a lengthwise running stripe arranged at the back of the.

leg portion and it is reinforced or spliced by the incorporation of additional yarn or thread a, along with the regular thread or yarn 72. stitches disposed centrally, or nearly so, of the stripe 2, and it is applied after the stocking has left the circular knitting machine. The splice or reinforcement 2, not only empha'sizes the line of stitches 3, enhancing the appeal to the eye. but also strengthens the structure where the stitches tend to weaken it, and in this way a good durable stocking can be produced from fine yarn on circular sail 3, is a line of sewing machine knitting machines of fine gage, and which is provided not only with a line of stitches at the back, but also is possessed of the added strength and attraction. due to emphasis of this line of stitches by a background. which tlie reinforced stripe 2, provides for it.

The structure of a stocking embodying the invention may be more easily understood from a description of its manufacture and for that reason such a description will be given, but it must be borne in mind that the invention is in no way limited to the details of the circular machine to which reference will be made.

A group of heel needles which, or the jacks of which, have relatively short butts, in sufiicient number to make a stripe 2, of the desired width at the back of the leg, is removed, and replaced by another group 0, of needles or needle jacks having special butts. During knitting a splicer cam (Z, pulls down all of the needles, except the needles of this group 0, so that the latter take the splicing thread at the splicer c, and

all the other needles pass under or by the splicer 6, without taking its thread. The result of this is that the reinforccd or spliced stripe 2, is produced. for both the splicer thread or yarn and the regular thread or yarn are knitted in on the gro ip of needles 0, which knit the stripe, leaving of c0111'se,,unknitted threads on the inside of the stocking, but the action of the take-up is such that these threads may extend only across the stripe. The stocking is then folded lengthwise at the middle or about the middle of. the stripe, Fig. 4, and this folded portion of the stripe is run through a suitable sewing machine which puts 'a row or line of stitches on it, thus producing the desired result.

I claim:

A stocking having a leg portion consisting of a continuous knitted tubular web, provided at the back with a lengthwise reinforceinent stripe, having a lengthwise running line of stitches, said reinforcement and stitches constituting an emphasized seam, substantially as described.

WILLIAM J. LONGTIN. 

